Static analysis based on abstract program representations

ABSTRACT

An application analysis platform enables automatic generation of abstract program representations (APRs) that are amenable to static analyzes for finding security vulnerabilities. The APR is generated automatically, preferably from an existing build system or a source repository, and then encapsulated into a binary archival format for consumption by a static analysis tool, which operates on-premises or in the cloud. The abstract program representation is a highly compact version of the actual source code it represents. The archival format obfuscates the source code that is subjected to the analysis, thus protecting it from being reverse-engineered when moved off-premises or otherwise shared with other users, teams and even organizations. Binary archive files generated separately from different source code components may be readily merged and analyzed together to provide more effective static data-flow analysis, even with respect to components that are built on different machines by different teams and at different times.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Technical Field

This disclosure relates generally to identifying and remediatingapplication vulnerabilities using static analysis tools.

Background of the Related Art

Today, most organizations depend on web-based software and systems torun their business processes, conduct transactions with suppliers, anddeliver sophisticated services to customers. Unfortunately, manyorganizations invest little to no effort in ensuring that thoseapplications are secure. Web-based systems can compromise the overallsecurity of organizations by introducing vulnerabilities that hackerscan use to gain access to confidential company information or customerdata.

To address this deficiency, static analysis tools and services have beendeveloped. Static security analysis (or “static analysis” for short)solutions help organization address web and mobile applicationvulnerabilities through a secure-by-design approach. This approachembeds security testing into the software development lifecycle itself,providing organizations with the tools they require to develop moresecure code. Static analysis tools are often used by computer softwaredevelopers to provide information about computer software while applyingonly static considerations (i.e., without executing a computer softwareapplication). Such tools simplify remediation by identifyingvulnerabilities in web and mobile applications prior to theirdeployment, generating results (reports and fix recommendations) throughcomprehensive scanning, and combining advanced dynamic and innovativehybrid analyses of glass-box testing (run-time analysis, also known asintegrated application security testing) with static taint analysis forsuperior accuracy. A representative commercial offering of this type isIBM® Security AppScan®, which enhances web application security andmobile application security, improves application security programmanagement and strengthens regulatory compliance.

Typically, application analysis tools of this type are delivered to endusers as traditional software packages, which the user is responsiblefor installing, configuring and maintaining. With this model, there aremany obstacles to quickly and effectively incorporating securityanalysis into application development lifecycles. For example, prior toactually performing any security analysis, the user first needs todownload and install the tool, address licensing and user managementissues for the tool, and then understand where and how to integrate thefunctionality into existing build and development workflows. The useralso has to have basic familiarity with the tool interface and how toconfigure the product for scanning. In addition to these basicchallenges, additional obstacles often arise during use of the tool dueto the sensitive nature of application security findings that the toolgenerates. In particular, because these findings can be used as a guidefor a malicious user to attack an application, users typically are notwilling to share security data, even with other teams in their ownorganization. This leads to several sub-optimal behaviors or outcomes,namely: little or no cross-team or cross-user collaboration on securityanalysis best practices or issue remediation, a lack of interaction orfeedback loops between the user and the tool provider to help improvethe analysis tool in terms of accuracy, performance or usefulness of thefindings, as well as significant duplication of work, which occurs asmany users scan the same source components.

BRIEF SUMMARY

An application analysis platform enables automatic generation ofapplication metadata in the form of abstract program representations(APRs, each an APR) that are amenable to static data-flow analyses forfinding security vulnerabilities. According to this disclosure, the ABRis generated automatically, preferably from either an existing buildsystem or a source repository, and then encapsulated into a binaryarchive format for consumption by static application security tools,which may operate on-premises or via a cloud-based services platform.

The abstract program representation is a highly compact version of theactual source code it represents. Once the ABR is generated, preferablyit is serialized and written into a binary archive file, which isreferred to herein as an Archive for Security Analysis (ARSA) file. TheARSA file effectively obfuscates the source code that is subjected tothe analysis, thus protecting it from being reverse-engineered even ifit moved off-premises (into the cloud) or otherwise shared with otherusers, teams and even organizations. Further, ARSA files generatedseparately from different source code components may be readily mergedand analyzed together to provide more effective static data-flowanalysis, even with respect to components that are built on differentmachines by different teams and at different times. The use ofcomponent-specific ARSA files that can be readily merged and tested,e.g., in the cloud, also facilitates incremental static analysis of theapplication as a whole because changes to an individual component do notnecessarily require re-generation and upload of ARSA files for otherunaffected components.

The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent features of thedisclosed subject matter. These features should be construed to bemerely illustrative. Many other beneficial results can be attained byapplying the disclosed subject matter in a different manner or bymodifying the invention as will be described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptionstaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary block diagram of a distributed dataprocessing environment in which exemplary aspects of the illustrativeembodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary block diagram of a data processing system inwhich exemplary aspects of the illustrative embodiments may beimplemented;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary cloud computing architecture in whichthe disclosed subject matter may be implemented;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a technique for analyzingvulnerable information flows in an application;

FIG. 5 is a representative computing environment in which the techniquesof this disclosure may be implemented;

FIG. 6 depicts a simple process flow of a first embodiment of thisdisclosure wherein a generator tool generates abstract programrepresentations from code in a build system;

FIG. 7 is a representative example of a set of build artifacts for acode component that is converted into an abstract program representationand then a binary archive file according to this disclosure;

FIG. 8 is the information extracted from the build artifact set shown inFIG. 7 and useful to generate an APR;

FIG. 9 depicts a second embodiment of this disclosure wherein agenerator tool generates the APR from code obtained in a source coderepository; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a merge operation wherein binary archive files frommultiple components of an application are merged prior to consumption bya static analysis tool.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

With reference now to the drawings and in particular with reference toFIGS. 1-2, exemplary diagrams of data processing environments areprovided in which illustrative embodiments of the disclosure may beimplemented. It should be appreciated that FIGS. 1-2 are only exemplaryand are not intended to assert or imply any limitation with regard tothe environments in which aspects or embodiments of the disclosedsubject matter may be implemented. Many modifications to the depictedenvironments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

Client-Server Technologies

With reference now to the drawings, FIG. 1 depicts a pictorialrepresentation of an exemplary distributed data processing system inwhich aspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented.Distributed data processing system 100 may include a network ofcomputers in which aspects of the illustrative embodiments may beimplemented. The distributed data processing system 100 contains atleast one network 102, which is the medium used to provide communicationlinks between various devices and computers connected together withindistributed data processing system 100. The network 102 may includeconnections, such as wire, wireless communication links, or fiber opticcables.

In the depicted example, server 104 and server 106 are connected tonetwork 102 along with storage unit 108. In addition, clients 110, 112,and 114 are also connected to network 102. These clients 110, 112, and114 may be, for example, personal computers, network computers, or thelike. In the depicted example, server 104 provides data, such as bootfiles, operating system images, and applications to the clients 110,112, and 114. Clients 110, 112, and 114 are clients to server 104 in thedepicted example. Distributed data processing system 100 may includeadditional servers, clients, and other devices not shown.

In the depicted example, distributed data processing system 100 is theInternet with network 102 representing a worldwide collection ofnetworks and gateways that use the Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicatewith one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone ofhigh-speed data communication lines between major nodes or hostcomputers, consisting of thousands of commercial, governmental,educational and other computer systems that route data and messages. Ofcourse, the distributed data processing system 100 may also beimplemented to include a number of different types of networks, such asfor example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the like. As stated above, FIG. 1 is intended as anexample, not as an architectural limitation for different embodiments ofthe disclosed subject matter, and therefore, the particular elementsshown in FIG. 1 should not be considered limiting with regard to theenvironments in which the illustrative embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented.

With reference now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of an exemplary dataprocessing system is shown in which aspects of the illustrativeembodiments may be implemented. Data processing system 200 is an exampleof a computer, such as client 110 in FIG. 1, in which computer usablecode or instructions implementing the processes for illustrativeembodiments of the disclosure may be located.

With reference now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a data processingsystem is shown in which illustrative embodiments may be implemented.Data processing system 200 is an example of a computer, such as server104 or client 110 in FIG. 1, in which computer-usable program code orinstructions implementing the processes may be located for theillustrative embodiments. In this illustrative example, data processingsystem 200 includes communications fabric 202, which providescommunications between processor unit 204, memory 206, persistentstorage 208, communications unit 210, input/output (I/O) unit 212, anddisplay 214.

Processor unit 204 serves to execute instructions for software that maybe loaded into memory 206. Processor unit 204 may be a set of one ormore processors or may be a multi-processor core, depending on theparticular implementation. Further, processor unit 204 may beimplemented using one or more heterogeneous processor systems in which amain processor is present with secondary processors on a single chip. Asanother illustrative example, processor unit 204 may be a symmetricmulti-processor (SMP) system containing multiple processors of the sametype.

Memory 206 and persistent storage 208 are examples of storage devices. Astorage device is any piece of hardware that is capable of storinginformation either on a temporary basis and/or a permanent basis. Memory206, in these examples, may be, for example, a random access memory orany other suitable volatile or non-volatile storage device. Persistentstorage 208 may take various forms depending on the particularimplementation. For example, persistent storage 208 may contain one ormore components or devices. For example, persistent storage 208 may be ahard drive, a flash memory, a rewritable optical disk, a rewritablemagnetic tape, or some combination of the above. The media used bypersistent storage 208 also may be removable. For example, a removablehard drive may be used for persistent storage 208.

Communications unit 210, in these examples, provides for communicationswith other data processing systems or devices. In these examples,communications unit 210 is a network interface card. Communications unit210 may provide communications through the use of either or bothphysical and wireless communications links.

Input/output unit 212 allows for input and output of data with otherdevices that may be connected to data processing system 200. Forexample, input/output unit 212 may provide a connection for user inputthrough a keyboard and mouse. Further, input/output unit 212 may sendoutput to a printer. Display 214 provides a mechanism to displayinformation to a user.

Instructions for the operating system and applications or programs arelocated on persistent storage 208. These instructions may be loaded intomemory 206 for execution by processor unit 204. The processes of thedifferent embodiments may be performed by processor unit 204 usingcomputer implemented instructions, which may be located in a memory,such as memory 206. These instructions are referred to as program code,computer-usable program code, or computer-readable program code that maybe read and executed by a processor in processor unit 204. The programcode in the different embodiments may be embodied on different physicalor tangible computer-readable media, such as memory 206 or persistentstorage 208.

Program code 216 is located in a functional form on computer-readablemedia 218 that is selectively removable and may be loaded onto ortransferred to data processing system 200 for execution by processorunit 204. Program code 216 and computer-readable media 218 form computerprogram product 220 in these examples. In one example, computer-readablemedia 218 may be in a tangible form, such as, for example, an optical ormagnetic disc that is inserted or placed into a drive or other devicethat is part of persistent storage 208 for transfer onto a storagedevice, such as a hard drive that is part of persistent storage 208. Ina tangible form, computer-readable media 218 also may take the form of apersistent storage, such as a hard drive, a thumb drive, or a flashmemory that is connected to data processing system 200. The tangibleform of computer-readable media 218 is also referred to ascomputer-recordable storage media. In some instances,computer-recordable media 218 may not be removable.

Alternatively, program code 216 may be transferred to data processingsystem 200 from computer-readable media 218 through a communicationslink to communications unit 210 and/or through a connection toinput/output unit 212. The communications link and/or the connection maybe physical or wireless in the illustrative examples. Thecomputer-readable media also may take the form of non-tangible media,such as communications links or wireless transmissions containing theprogram code. The different components illustrated for data processingsystem 200 are not meant to provide architectural limitations to themanner in which different embodiments may be implemented. The differentillustrative embodiments may be implemented in a data processing systemincluding components in addition to or in place of those illustrated fordata processing system 200. Other components shown in FIG. 2 can bevaried from the illustrative examples shown. As one example, a storagedevice in data processing system 200 is any hardware apparatus that maystore data. Memory 206, persistent storage 208, and computer-readablemedia 218 are examples of storage devices in a tangible form.

In another example, a bus system may be used to implement communicationsfabric 202 and may be comprised of one or more buses, such as a systembus or an input/output bus. Of course, the bus system may be implementedusing any suitable type of architecture that provides for a transfer ofdata between different components or devices attached to the bus system.Additionally, a communications unit may include one or more devices usedto transmit and receive data, such as a modem or a network adapter.Further, a memory may be, for example, memory 206 or a cache such asfound in an interface and memory controller hub that may be present incommunications fabric 202.

Computer program code for carrying out operations of the presentinvention may be written in any combination of one or more programminglanguages, including an object-oriented programming language such asJava™, Smalltalk, C++, C#, Objective-C, or the like, and conventionalprocedural programming languages. The program code may execute entirelyon the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer, or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware inFIGS. 1-2 may vary depending on the implementation. Other internalhardware or peripheral devices, such as flash memory, equivalentnon-volatile memory, or optical disk drives and the like, may be used inaddition to or in place of the hardware depicted in FIGS. 1-2. Also, theprocesses of the illustrative embodiments may be applied to amultiprocessor data processing system, other than the SMP systemmentioned previously, without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosed subject matter.

As will be seen, the techniques described herein may operate inconjunction within the standard client-server paradigm such asillustrated in FIG. 1 in which client machines communicate with anInternet-accessible Web-based portal executing on a set of one or moremachines. End users operate Internet-connectable devices (e.g., desktopcomputers, notebook computers, Internet-enabled mobile devices, or thelike) that are capable of accessing and interacting with the portal.Typically, each client or server machine is a data processing systemsuch as illustrated in FIG. 2 comprising hardware and software, andthese entities communicate with one another over a network, such as theInternet, an intranet, an extranet, a private network, or any othercommunications medium or link. A data processing system typicallyincludes one or more processors, an operating system, one or moreapplications, and one or more utilities. The applications on the dataprocessing system provide native support for Web services including,without limitation, support for HTTP, SOAP, XML, WSDL, UDDI, and WSFL,among others. Information regarding SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and WSFL isavailable from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is responsiblefor developing and maintaining these standards; further informationregarding HTTP and XML is available from Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF). Familiarity with these standards is presumed.

Cloud Computing Model

An emerging information technology (IT) delivery model is cloudcomputing, by which shared resources, software and information areprovided over the Internet to computers and other devices on-demand.Cloud computing can significantly reduce IT costs and complexities whileimproving workload optimization and service delivery. With thisapproach, an application instance can be hosted and made available fromInternet-based resources that are accessible through a conventional Webbrowser over HTTP. An example application might be one that provides acommon set of messaging functions, such as email, calendaring, contactmanagement, and instant messaging. A user would then access the servicedirectly over the Internet. Using this service, an enterprise wouldplace its email, calendar and/or collaboration infrastructure in thecloud, and an end user would use an appropriate client to access his orher email, or perform a calendar operation.

Cloud compute resources are typically housed in large server farms thatrun one or more network applications, typically using a virtualizedarchitecture wherein applications run inside virtual servers, orso-called “virtual machines” (VMs), that are mapped onto physicalservers in a data center facility. The virtual machines typically run ontop of a hypervisor, which is a control program that allocates physicalresources to the virtual machines.

Cloud computing is a model of service delivery for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing,memory, storage, applications, virtual machines, and services) that canbe rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort orinteraction with a provider of the service. This cloud model may includeat least five characteristics, at least three service models, and atleast four deployment models, all as more particularly described anddefined in “Draft NIST Working Definition of Cloud Computing” by PeterMell and Tim Grance, dated Oct. 7, 2009.

In particular, the following are typical characteristics:

On-demand self-service: a cloud consumer can unilaterally provisioncomputing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, asneeded automatically without requiring human interaction with theservice's provider.

Broad network access: capabilities are available over a network andaccessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneousthin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Resource pooling: the provider's computing resources are pooled to servemultiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physicaland virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according todemand. There is a sense of location independence in that the consumergenerally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of theprovided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher levelof abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter).

Rapid elasticity: capabilities can be rapidly and elasticallyprovisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out andrapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilitiesavailable for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can bepurchased in any quantity at any time.

Measured service: cloud systems automatically control and optimizeresource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level ofabstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can bemonitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both theprovider and consumer of the utilized service.

The Service Models typically are as follows:

Software as a Service (SaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure.The applications are accessible from various client devices through athin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based e-mail).The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloudinfrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage,or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exceptionof limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquiredapplications created using programming languages and tools supported bythe provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure including networks, servers, operating systems, orstorage, but has control over the deployed applications and possiblyapplication hosting environment configurations.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): the capability provided to theconsumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and otherfundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy andrun arbitrary software, which can include operating systems andapplications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage,deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networkingcomponents (e.g., host firewalls).

The Deployment Models typically are as follows:

Private cloud: the cloud infrastructure is operated solely for anorganization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party andmay exist on-premises or off-premises.

Community cloud: the cloud infrastructure is shared by severalorganizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns(e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and complianceconsiderations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third partyand may exist on-premises or off-premises.

Public cloud: the cloud infrastructure is made available to the generalpublic or a large industry group and is owned by an organization sellingcloud services.

Hybrid cloud: the cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or moreclouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities butare bound together by standardized or proprietary technology thatenables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting forload-balancing between clouds).

A cloud computing environment is service-oriented with a focus onstatelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.At the heart of cloud computing is an infrastructure comprising anetwork of interconnected nodes. A representative cloud computing nodeis as illustrated in FIG. 2 above. In particular, in a cloud computingnode there is a computer system/server, which is operational withnumerous other general purpose or special purpose computing systemenvironments or configurations. Examples of well-known computingsystems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable foruse with computer system/server include, but are not limited to,personal computer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thickclients, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computersystems, and distributed cloud computing environments that include anyof the above systems or devices, and the like. Computer system/servermay be described in the general context of computer system-executableinstructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computersystem. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs,objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computersystem/server may be practiced in distributed cloud computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloudcomputing environment, program modules may be located in both local andremote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.

Referring now to FIG. 3, by way of additional background, a set offunctional abstraction layers provided by a cloud computing environmentis shown. It should be understood in advance that the components,layers, and functions shown in FIG. 3 are intended to be illustrativeonly and embodiments of the invention are not limited thereto. Asdepicted, the following layers and corresponding functions are provided:

Hardware and software layer 300 includes hardware and softwarecomponents. Examples of hardware components include mainframes, in oneexample IBM® zSeries® systems; RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer)architecture based servers, in one example IBM pSeries® systems; IBMxSeries® systems; IBM BladeCenter® systems; storage devices; networksand networking components. Examples of software components includenetwork application server software, in one example IBM WebSphere®application server software; and database software, in one example IBMDB2® database software. (IBM, zSeries, pSeries, xSeries, BladeCenter,WebSphere, and DB2 are trademarks of International Business MachinesCorporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide)

Virtualization layer 302 provides an abstraction layer from which thefollowing examples of virtual entities may be provided: virtual servers;virtual storage; virtual networks, including virtual private networks;virtual applications and operating systems; and virtual clients.

In one example, management layer 304 may provide the functions describedbelow. Resource provisioning provides dynamic procurement of computingresources and other resources that are utilized to perform tasks withinthe cloud computing environment. Metering and Pricing provide costtracking as resources are utilized within the cloud computingenvironment, and billing or invoicing for consumption of theseresources. In one example, these resources may comprise applicationsoftware licenses. Security provides identity verification for cloudconsumers and tasks, as well as protection for data and other resources.User portal provides access to the cloud computing environment forconsumers and system administrators. Service level management providescloud computing resource allocation and management such that requiredservice levels are met. Service Level Agreement (SLA) planning andfulfillment provides pre-arrangement for, and procurement of, cloudcomputing resources for which a future requirement is anticipated inaccordance with an SLA.

Workloads layer 306 provides examples of functionality for which thecloud computing environment may be utilized. Examples of workloads andfunctions which may be provided from this layer include: mapping andnavigation; software development and lifecycle management; virtualclassroom education delivery; data analytics processing; transactionprocessing; enterprise-specific functions in a private cloud; and,according to this disclosure, static security analysis 308.

It is understood in advance that although this disclosure includes adetailed description on cloud computing, implementation of the teachingsrecited herein are not limited to a cloud computing environment. Rather,embodiments of the disclosed technique are capable of being implementedin conjunction with any other type of computing environment now known orlater developed. These include standalone computing environments (e.g.,an on-premises desktop machine), client-server-based architectures, andthe like.

Thus, a representative cloud computing environment has a set of highlevel functional components that include a front end identity manager, abusiness support services (BSS) function component, an operationalsupport services (OSS) function component, and the compute cloudcomponent. The identity manager is responsible for interfacing withrequesting clients to provide identity management, and this componentmay be implemented with one or more known systems, such as the TivoliFederated Identity Manager (TFIM) that is available from IBMCorporation, of Armonk, N.Y. In appropriate circumstances TFIM may beused to provide federated single sign-on (F-SSO) to other cloudcomponents. The business support services component provides certainadministrative functions, such as billing support. The operationalsupport services component is used to provide provisioning andmanagement of the other cloud components, such as virtual machine (VM)instances. The cloud component represents the main computationalresources, which are typically a plurality of virtual machine instancesthat are used to execute a target application that is being madeavailable for access via the cloud. One or more databases are used tostore directory, log, and other working data. All of these components(included the front end identity manager) are located “within” thecloud, but this is not a requirement. In an alternative embodiment, theidentity manager may be operated externally to the cloud. The serviceprovider also may be operated externally to the cloud.

Some clouds are based upon non-traditional IP networks. Thus, forexample, a cloud may be based upon two-tier CLOS-based networks withspecial single layer IP routing using hashes of MAC addresses. Thetechniques described herein may be used in such non-traditional clouds.

Generalizing, the cloud computing infrastructure provides for a virtualmachine hosting environment that comprises host machines (e.g., serversor like physical machine computing devices) connected via a network andone or more management servers. Typically, the physical servers are eachadapted to dynamically provide one or more virtual machines usingvirtualization technology, such as VMware ESX/ESXi. Multiple VMs can beplaced into a single host machine and share the host machine's CPU,memory and other resources, thereby increasing the utilization of anorganization's data center. Among other tasks, the management servermonitors the infrastructure and automatically manipulates the VMplacement as needed, e.g., by moving virtual machines between hosts.

In a non-limiting implementation, representative platform technologiesare, without limitation, IBM System x® servers with VMware vSphere 4.1Update 1 and 5.0.

In one embodiment, a static analysis tool, such as IBM AppScanEnterprise Edition, is implemented as a cloud-based application.

Static Analysis Tools and Services

As is well-known, static analysis tools are used by computer softwaredevelopers to provide information about computer software while applyingonly static considerations (i.e., without executing a computer softwareapplication). More formally, and as used herein, the term “staticprogram analysis” means an analysis of a static representation of anapplication. In one type of static analysis, data flows are tracedwithin a computer software application from “sources,” typicallyapplication programming interfaces (API) that introduce “untrusted”input into a program, such as user input, to “sinks,” typicallysecurity-sensitive operations such as modifying a database. Moregenerally, the term “sink” or “security sink” means a module, functionor procedure that consumes in input value and performs an operation onthe input value that is security sensitive.

Such flows are identified as security vulnerabilities that may requireremediation, typically by ensuring that a flow that is identified as asecurity vulnerability encounters a “downgrader” that validates and/orsanitizes untrusted input, such as by checking whether the inputcontains illegal characters or is in an illegal format, both commontactics used in malicious attacks. Generalizing, a “downgrader” refersto a module, routing or function that endorses, sanitizes and/orvalidates input data. Static analysis tools that identify securityvulnerabilities typically provide computer software developers with ashort description of each type of security vulnerability found, and mayeven provide sample code snippets that may be used by the developer toconstruct a downgrader for remediating the security vulnerability.

In operation, a static program analysis may analyze a call-treerepresenting previously recorded call stacks of the application toidentify security vulnerabilities that may be present in theapplication. The term “call stack” refers to a stack data structure thatstores information about the active subroutines of a computer program,such as an application. Without limitation, the static security analysistypically takes the form of taint analysis, where the analysis isparameterized by a set of security rules, each rule being a triple<Source, San, Sink>, where Source denotes source statements that readuntrusted user inputs, San denotes downgrader statements that endorseuntrusted data by validating and/or sanitizing it, and Sink denotes sinkstatements which perform security-sensitive operations. Given a securityrule R, any flow from a source in Source_(R) to a sink in Sink_(R) thatdoes not pass through a downgrader from San_(R) comprises a potentialvulnerability. This approach thus reduces security analysis to a graphreachability problem.

During static analysis of the computer program, the security analysisapplication analyses the computer model represented by the control flowcall-graph, to determine whether there are potential paths, duringexecution of the computer program, from the source to the sink withoutthe user-provided data being downgraded by the downgrader. One such pathis indicated in the call-graph by an edge. This path generally isundesirable, and may indicate a security vulnerability in the computerprogram. In this regard, the edge can represent a witness to a securityvulnerability, and this witness is then reported as a “finding” to theuser.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a system 400 for analyzingvulnerable information flows in an application 402. In this knownscenario, static analysis is used in addition to a black-box scan. Asseen in FIG. 4, while the application 402 executes, the scanner 404performs a scan of the application and, based on the scan, generates acall-graph 406 representing call stacks arising in the applicationduring processing of test inputs provided to the application 402. Thecall-graph 406 may be pre-generated or provided from some other datasource (e.g., a configuration file). As depicted, the system 400includes a static analysis module 408 that performs a static analysis ofthe application 402. Specifically, the static analysis module 408performs a static analysis of the call-graph 406 in which the callstacks identified by the black-box scanner 404 are recorded. Asdescribed above, in this way the static analysis module 408 can identifypaths (i.e., flows) in the call-graph 406 that potentially representsecurity vulnerabilities in the application 402. For example, the staticanalysis module 408 can generate a security report 410 that indicatessuch paths as witnesses to security vulnerabilities. The security report410 can be made to be available to a user in any suitable manner. Forexample, the security report 410 can be presented on a display,presented in a printout, stored to a file, or the like.

Static Analysis Using Abstract Program Representations (APRs) andAssociated Archive Files

With the above as background, the subject matter of this disclosure isnow described.

As described generally above, this disclosure provides for anapplication analysis platform that enables automatic generation ofabstract program representations (APRs, each an APR) that are amenableto static data-flow analyses for finding security vulnerabilities. Asused herein, an abstract program representation refers to ahighly-compact version of the actual source code it represents.According to this disclosure, an APR for a particular source codecomponent is generated automatically, preferably from either an existingbuild system or a source repository, and it is then encapsulated into aparticular binary format for consumption by static application securitytools, which may operate on-premises or via a cloud-based servicesplatform.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary operating environment in which thetechniques of this disclosure may be implemented. In this exampleenvironment, an on-premises development team 500 is responsible fordeveloping a source code component 502 for an application 504. There maybe one or more other development teams, and those teams may beco-located with development team 500, or located elsewhere. Theapplication comprises multiple such components, and, with respect to aparticular development location or time, any particular component may beundergoing development, modification, updating, or the like. Asdepicted, the environment includes a Static Analysis Security Testing(SAST) tool or agent 506 that, as is well-known and as described above(e.g., FIG. 4), is used to scan source code to identify potentialsecurity vulnerabilities, and that provides developers with assistanceto triage and fix those identified vulnerabilities. The static analysistool 506 operates either on-premises, or in a cloud-based platform 508.An on-premises solution may be a standalone (e.g., desktop) product(e.g., FIG. 2), a network-based client-server solution (e.g., FIG. 1), aweb-based solution, or the like. The particular details of how thestatic analysis tool operates are not an aspect of this disclosure,although typically the tool will operate in the manner described above.

As also depicted, the environment typically includes a build system 510,and a source code repository 512. According to this disclosure, newtooling is provided in the form of a generator tool 514. The generatortool, as will be described below, is the mechanism that automaticallygenerates abstract program representations (APRs, each an APR 516) withrespect to the source code component 502 of the application 504. Theremay be one or more abstract program representations APRs per codecomponent, and an APR may be used by more than one code component. Asnoted above, the APR is a compact version of the actual source code itrepresents. The generator tool 514 creates the APR automatically,preferably from code generated within the build system 510 itself (i.e.,on-the-fly as the code is built), or by integrated directly with thesource code repository 512 that stores components already developed.

The generator tool 514 includes an additional important function,namely, it operates to encapsulate the APR into a binary archive file,which is referred to herein as an “Archive for Security Analysis” (ARSA)file 518. The ARSA file is sometimes referred to herein as a “container”because it contains the abstract program representation, albeit in aform that does not expose details regarding the source code from whichthe APR is generated. In a preferred approach, an ARSA file for an APRis created by serializing the APR into a compact binary file formatcontainer that preferably contains only the data necessary for staticapplication security analysis. The ARSA file 518 effectively obfuscatesthe source code that will be subjected to the static analysis.Preferably, this obfuscation is accomplished with encryption and/ordirect manipulation and translation of sensitive data into generic datathat would be unhelpful to malicious users. With this approach, the ARSAfile 518 is protected from being reverse-engineered even if it movedoff-premises (into the cloud) or otherwise shared with other users,teams and even organizations. The ARSA file has a reduced amount ofdata, thereby reducing the bandwidth required to transport it across thenetwork, e.g., to cloud-based platform 508.

The generator tool 514 typically is implemented in software, e.g., as aset of computer program instructions executed by one or more hardwareprocessors. A particular generator tool may comprise any number ofprograms, processes, execution threads, and the like, together withappropriate databases to support data used or created by the tool. Thetool may be configured or administered with a web-based front-end, via acommand line, or the like. The tool may include one or more functionsthat are implemented programmatically, or that interoperate with othercomputing entities or software systems via an application programminginterface (API), or any convenient request-response protocol. Onecomponent of the generator tool 514 may be used to create the APR, whilea second component of the generator tool 514 may be used to convert theAPR into the ARSA file. These functions may be separate or distinct,co-located or separated, or implemented with distinct tools, modules,programs, processes or devices. The particular nomenclature of the“tool” is provided merely for illustration purposes and is not intendedto limit this disclosure.

As will be described, a further feature of this disclosure is that ARSAfiles generated separately from different source code components 502 maybe readily merged and analyzed together to provide more effective staticdata-flow analysis, even with respect to components that are built ondifferent machines by different teams and at different times. Thismerging function typically occurs in the cloud platform 508 and thus isindicated by the merge function 520. The merge function 520 may beimplemented on-premises as well, or in a system or location dedicated tothis operation. As will be seen, the use of component-specific ARSAfiles that can be readily merged and tested, e.g., in the cloud, alsofacilitates incremental static analysis of the application as a wholebecause changes to an individual component do not necessarily requirere-generation and upload of ARSA files for other unaffected components.

As also seen in FIG. 5, typically the cloud platform 508 interoperateswith other development environments 525 that may be located remotelyfrom the main development environment 505 shown, and that include otherusers, teams and/or organizations. As will be seen, the approachdescribed herein facilitates cross-user collaboration within thedevelopment environment 505, as well as cross-team andcross-organization collaboration across the environments 505 and 525.This collaboration may occur even with the parties remaining anonymousfrom one another with respect to the code component ARSAs that areprovided to the cloud platform and merged there by the merge function520.

With the above as further background, the following provides additionaldetails regarding the APR and how it is converted into an ARSA file.Without intending to be limiting, a typical Abstract ProgramRepresentation (ABR) for a source code component may be described asfollows:

Abstract Program Representation={function-declarations,function-definitions, global-variables, class-fields}

function-definition={function-name, formal-variables, local-variables,operations}

function-declaration={function-name, formal-variables}

operations={call-operation, assignment-operation, return-operation,field-load-operation, field-store-operation}

call-operation=simple-call-operation or virtual-call-operation

simple-call-operation={caller-signature, callee-signature, arguments}

virtual-call-operation={caller-signature, callee-signature, arguments,virtual-overrides}, and so on.

In a first embodiment, the abstract program representations aregenerated automatically from existing build systems in the developmentenvironment. In this embodiment, the generator tool interfaces to thebuild system over an application programming interface (API), or viasome other request-response communication protocol. The particulartechnique by which the generator tool interfaces to the build system isnot intending to be limited.

The basic operation is shown in the process flow in FIG. 6. At step 600,a set of build artifacts is received. The routine then continues at step602 to analyze the build artifacts to extract certain information, suchas the paths to the build outputs, the paths to the source codedirectories, compile-time dependencies, and the like. At step 604, theinformation obtained from the analysis in step 602 is used to generatethe APR. At step 606, the APR is then converted into the ARSA file tocomplete the process. The ARSA file is then consumed by the SAST tool,either locally or following transport to the cloud.

Preferably, the process shown in FIG. 6 operates autonomously and in anautomated manner, generating the ARSA file as the set of build artifactsare received or otherwise made available.

The following provides a more concrete example. In this embodiment, theAPR is generated from the source code component by analyzing buildartifacts (e.g., such as a Maven pom.xml file, an Ant build.xml file, orthe like) to extract preferably the following information: the paths tothe build outputs (e.g. *.jar, *.war, etc.), the path(s) to the sourcecode directories, and the compile-time dependencies. This information isthen fed to an engine that uses known transformation methods andoptimizations to produce the APR. One technique for generating the APRin this manner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,398,517, which is ownedby the assignee of this application, and the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference. Then, and as noted above, the abstractprogram representation is serialized into binary and/or encrypted, andincluded within an ARSA file. As described, these operations preferablyare performed by the generator tool, which is sometimes referred toherein as the “ARSA generator.”

FIG. 7 illustrates an example set of build artifacts located indirectory “C:\myApp” and created by the build system for a particularsource code component. These artifacts are located in a Maven pom.xmlfile 700, which is exemplary. Using the Maven API, the followinginformation can then be determined automatically, namely, the buildoutput (e.g., C:\myApp\target\my-app-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar), the location ofthe source files (e.g., C:\myApp\src\main\java), and the compile timedependency (e.g., servlet-api-2.5.jar). The jar file in the build outputis the file that has to be analyzed by the static analysis tool. Thesource files are located under C:\myApp\src\main\java, and thisinformation is useful in mapping the results or security findings backto the source code to help the users with issue resolution. Thecompile-time dependency is used while building the abstract programrepresentation for the jar file. According to this embodiment, thegenerator tool constructs an XML representation of the above data, withthe result 800 as shown in FIG. 8. The XML file 800 is then used togenerate the APR for the target “my-app-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar”. This APR isthen serialized into binary and/or encrypted to generate the ARSA file.As noted, the ARSA file is adapted for consumption by the staticapplication security testing (SAST) tool. Because the underlyingdata-model and encodings used for the abstract program representationare proprietary to the developer(s), it is extremely difficult toreverse engineer the original source code from the ARSA file.

According to an alternative embodiment, the abstract programrepresentation is generated from the source repository. This approachtypically involves the operations shown in the process flow in FIG. 9.The operation begins at step 900 with the user pointing to therepository data containing the code component(s) that need to be scannedby the SAST tool. At step 902, a discovery operation is initiated. Inparticular, and in order to handle any arbitrary code extracted fromsource repositories, the discovery process 902 preferably is designed tobe extensible with technology-specific run strategies. A given runstrategy determines whether a build artifact is a target (that is, acontainer of other targets and files), or a file for which abstractprogram representation should be generated. The relationship betweentargets and files lends itself well to a file system hierarchy. Thus, inone example, the discovery operation simply identifies a containingdirectory as a target, and then crawls through the directory to collectfiles of recognizable extension types. In a more complex run strategy,the discovery operation treats the directory as a “project,” e.g., froman Integrated Development Environment IDE, e.g., Eclipse, or VisualStudio. In either case, the discovery operation extracts the metadatafrom such a project to find the build dependencies that would be neededfor the generation of the abstract program representation. In yetanother example that involves a yet more complex run strategy, thediscovery operation works by transforming the source it finds into otherformats (e.g., building of C/C++ into object code) as required. In theseexample scenarios, which are not intended to be limited, a target doesnot necessarily have to physically contain the files under it. Forexample, an Ant build XML file can be thought of as a target that“contains” the files that the build produces, and this relationship isdictated by an appropriate Ant run strategy that understands thestructure of build XML files.

Generalizing, the discovery process 902, either alone or in combinationwith the one or more technology-specific run strategies, takes as inputsource code extracted from a repository, and then identifies thetargets, files and related build information that are present. Thevarious run strategies may be quite varied, e.g., a scan target filestrategy, a directory-based strategy, an Eclipse Workspace strategy, abuild.xml strategy, a custom run strategy, and others. The discoveryprocess enables the generator tool to find build artifacts whenavailable (e.g., by file browsing and direct pointing), and todistinguish non-build outputs identified during directory browsing frombuild objects (e.g., class files, EARs, WARs, JARs, EXEs, DLLs, etc.)throughout the code tree.

The process then continues at step 904 to index the artifacts (i.e.source files and build information). At this step, the data collectedfrom the discovery process is written out to a series of control filesthat mirrors the hierarchy of targets and files. These control files actas instructions to the generator tool and, in particular, to pinpointthe source files that the generator needs to process. At step 906, thegenerator tool is executed against these control files to generate theabstract program representation. At step 908, the APR is serializedand/or encrypted, and written into the ARSA file to complete theprocess.

Preferably, the ARSA file generated in this manner is uploaded back tothe source repository and stored together with the code that it wasgenerated from. This enables the ARSA file to be sent for securityscanning whenever needed. Moreover, when other components use the codein question (likely in the form of a library), other users may accessthe repository, obtain the ARSA, and then stitch together thecomponent's APR with that of the other components. This notion ofstitching together abstract program representations from multiple ARSAfiles for an accurate whole-application analysis is an additionalbenefit of this disclosure, and a preferred technique for implementingthis merging operation is now described.

As has been described in the two (2) embodiments above, the technique ofthis disclosure provides for building ARSA files automatically, e.g., byplugging the ARSA generator tool into a build system (FIG. 6), or bypointing it to a source repository (FIG. 9), to thereby create a libraryof ARSA files that can be pulled in for analysis whenever required. Thisanalysis is sometimes referred to herein as a “whole-application”analysis, wherein different components of the application, althoughbuilt at different times, different locations, or by different teams,are still scanned together as an integrated or unitary whole. Thisanalysis also is useful for “incremental” analysis, wherein anindividual component of the whole is updated and modified, with theresult updated or modified ARSA then re-integrated into the whole andthe result then scanned.

FIG. 10 is a process flow of a method for componentized analysis ofmultiple code components according to this approach. The code componentsare assumed to have been built on one or more different machines ordevelopment environments, at different times, by different teams, and soforth. Each component has an associated APR (or multiple of them) asembodied in an ARSA file, all as described. The described method isoperative to automatically merge the abstract program representationsfrom multiple ARSA files generated separately for different components,and to analyze them together. In the described method, preferably thelinkages between function calls made from one ARSA file (i.e., onecomponent) to another are established at analysis time, and the dataflow analysis can trace the end-to-end flow of data from one componentto another.

The method begins at step 1000 by loading the ARSA file, one at a time,to build an in-memory representation of the component's APR. Severalparsing steps are then carried out. In particular, at step 1002, if acall to a function is found in the ARSA file, a function-declaration isthen generated for that call. At step 1004, if a function-definition isfound, the function-declaration for that function-definition is removed,and only its function-definition object is maintained.

At step 1006, and while reading a function-declaration from an ARSA filethat is being processed currently into the in-memory representation(“current_arsa”), the routine provides additional processing. Inparticular, if a function-definition with a same signature alreadyexists in the in-memory representation built so far, a new object forthe function-declaration is not built, but all call operations in thecurrent_arsa that point to this function-declaration are updated topoint to the function-definition. If, however, a function-declarationwith the same signature already exists in the in-memory representationbuilt so far, an object for the function-declaration is not built, butall call operations in the current_arsa that point to thisfunction-declaration are updated to point to the existingfunction-declaration. If no-definition or -declaration for thissignature exists, a new function-declaration object is created and addedto the in-memory representation.

At step 1008, and while reading a function-definition from the ARSAfile, the routine provides additional processing. In particular, if afunction-declaration with the same signature already exists in thein-memory representation built so far, the function-declaration isremoved, the new function-definition is added, and all existingcall-operations that point to the function-declaration are updated topoint to the new function-definition. If, however, a function-definitionwith the same signature already exists in the in-memory representation,the routine applies some heuristics (e.g., version number of thefunction-definition, the content of the function-definition, auser-chosen function-definition, etc.), and then removes the existingfunction-definition and adds the selected function-definition (asdetermined by the heuristics). All call-operations that point to theremoved function-definition are then pointed to the selected one.

The above-described steps are applied to each ARSA file to be combined.It ensures that the same analysis result will occur (for thewhole-application analysis) regardless of the loading order of the ARSAfiles.

Finally, at step 1010, one or more swapping techniques may be applied tothe in-memory representation to reduce its size. This is a knowntechnique that is optional here. One such approach for memory managementto support large-scale static analysis using this swapping technique isdescribed in U.S. Publication No. 20100131721, which is owned by theassignee of this application.

Without limitation, typically the merge operation described by theprocess flow in FIG. 10 is carried out in the cloud platform, with oneor more component ARSA files provided from one or more distinct sources.

The techniques described herein provide numerous advantages. Theapproach can be integrated easily with existing build systems or coderepositories. As noted above, existing SAST tools require source code orcompiled files (e.g., .class files) to do the analysis. When the SASTtool is on the cloud as a service, users of SAST tools need to upload alarge number of source files or compiled files to the server to scan theapplication for security vulnerabilities. By providing just ARSA files,in the manner described, provides numerous advantages. These filescontain only the data necessary for static application securityanalysis. The approach thus reduces the amount of data that users needto transfer via the network. Moreover, because the uploaded data isgenerated using proprietary transformations and encodings (and/orprotected by encryption), there is no way to reverse engineer theabstract program representation to get the original source or byte code.As a result, and as compared to uploading source code or compiled files(such as .class files), the approach described herein (transferring ARSAon the Internet) is safe even if a hacker gets access to the files whilethey are being uploaded.

An additional advantage is provided by creating and storing ARSA filesas-needed. In this manner, files can be readily merged to facilitatewhole-application analysis, even as individual components are changed orupdated. Indeed, the approach supports incremental static analysis suchthat when one component of an application is changed, the user need notregenerate and re-upload the ARSA files for all the components of theapplication. Rather, the user can simple generate the ARSA files for theupdated/changed components and still get results for the wholeapplication because the merge preferably is done in the cloud.

The described approach is preferably web- or cloud-based, therebyavoiding traditional installation and deployment troubles that oftenaccompany SAST tools. The techniques provide for lightweight tooling(the generator tool) to generate obfuscated application metadata (theabstract program representation) that users can feel comfortableuploading off-site. The approach thus promotes simple and effectivecross-user, cross-team and cross-organization collaboration withsufficient anonymity to alleviate or ameliorate security concerns.Indeed, the approach here may be implemented by users that are entirelyanonymous to one another. By simplifying the manner in which staticanalysis is performed, the approach also facilitates applicationanalytics and enables users to collaborate much more efficiently andeffectively. Given the protections and functionalities afforded by thedescribed technique, a cloud-based security analysis platform may evenexpose these functionalities on a crowd-sourced basis.

Preferably, the techniques herein are implemented in associated with astatic analysis tool, such as IBM Security AppScan Source. In thisexample, the call-graph is generated by parsing the source code, firstto generate the abstract program representation, and then using the APRto build a call-graph. The reference to this commercial product isexemplary and should not be taken to limit the disclosed technique,which may be implemented on any appliance (or, more generally, machine)having the general characteristics and operating functionality that hasbeen described.

This subject matter may be implemented as-a-service. As previouslynoted, and without limitation, the subject matter may be implementedwithin or in association with a cloud deployment platform system orappliance, or using any other type of deployment systems, products,devices, programs or processes. As has been described, the generatortool functionality may be provided as a standalone function, or it mayleverage functionality from other products and services.

A representative cloud application platform with which the APR/ARSAgeneration service may be implemented includes, without limitation, anycloud-supported Static Application Security Testing (SAST) framework,product or service.

Generalizing, the techniques herein may be implemented as a managementsolution, service, product, appliance, device, process, program,execution thread, or the like. Typically, the techniques are implementedin software, as one or more computer programs executed in hardwareprocessing elements, in association with data stored in one or more datasources, such as a problems database. Some or all of the processingsteps described may be automated and operate autonomously in associationwith other systems. The automation may be full- or partial, and theoperations (in whole or in part) may be synchronous or asynchronous,demand-based, or otherwise.

These above-described components typically are each implemented assoftware, i.e., as a set of computer program instructions executed inone or more hardware processors. The components are shown as distinct,but this is not a requirement, as the components may also be integratedwith one another in whole or in part. One or more of the components mayexecute in a dedicated location, or remote from one another. One or moreof the components may have sub-components that execute together toprovide the functionality. There is no requirement that particularfunctions of the generator service be executed by a particular componentas named above, as the functionality herein (or any aspect thereof) maybe implemented in other or systems.

The generator functionality can interact or interoperate with securityanalytics systems or services.

As has been described, the functionality described above may beimplemented as a standalone approach, e.g., one or more software-basedfunctions executed by one or more hardware processors, or it may beavailable as a managed service (including as a web service via aSOAP/XML interface). The particular hardware and software implementationdetails described herein are merely for illustrative purposes are notmeant to limit the scope of the described subject matter.

More generally, computing devices within the context of the disclosedsubject matter are each a data processing system (such as shown in FIG.2) comprising hardware and software, and these entities communicate withone another over a network, such as the Internet, an intranet, anextranet, a private network, or any other communications medium or link.The applications on the data processing system provide native supportfor Web and other known services and protocols including, withoutlimitation, support for HTTP, FTP, SMTP, SOAP, XML, WSDL, UDDI, andWSFL, among others. Information regarding SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and WSFL isavailable from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is responsiblefor developing and maintaining these standards; further informationregarding HTTP, FTP, SMTP and XML is available from Internet EngineeringTask Force (IETF).

As noted, and in addition to the cloud-based environment, the techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented in or in conjunction with variousserver-side architectures including simple n-tier architectures, webportals, federated systems, and the like.

Still more generally, the subject matter described herein can take theform of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodimentor an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In apreferred embodiment, the security assurance service (or any componentthereof) is implemented in software, which includes but is not limitedto firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore,the download and delete interfaces and functionality can take the formof a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable orcomputer-readable medium providing program code for use by or inconnection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For thepurposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readablemedium can be any apparatus that can contain or store the program foruse by or in connection with the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic,optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or a semiconductor system (orapparatus or device). Examples of a computer-readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of opticaldisks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compactdisk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. The computer-readable medium is atangible, non-transitory item.

The computer program product may be a product having programinstructions (or program code) to implement one or more of the describedfunctions. Those instructions or code may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium in a data processing system after beingdownloaded over a network from a remote data processing system. Or,those instructions or code may be stored in a computer readable storagemedium in a server data processing system and adapted to be downloadedover a network to a remote data processing system for use in a computerreadable storage medium within the remote system.

In a representative embodiment, the techniques are implemented in aspecial purpose computing platform, preferably in software executed byone or more processors. The software is maintained in one or more datastores or memories associated with the one or more processors, and thesoftware may be implemented as one or more computer programs.Collectively, this special-purpose hardware and software comprises thefunctionality described above.

While the above describes a particular order of operations performed bycertain embodiments of the invention, it should be understood that suchorder is exemplary, as alternative embodiments may perform theoperations in a different order, combine certain operations, overlapcertain operations, or the like. References in the specification to agiven embodiment indicate that the embodiment described may include aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodimentmay not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic.

Finally, while given components of the system have been describedseparately, one of ordinary skill will appreciate that some of thefunctions may be combined or shared in given instructions, programsequences, code portions, and the like.

The techniques herein provide for improvements to another technology ortechnical field, namely, static security analysis tools and systems, andcloud-based systems, as well as improvements to the functioning ofsoftware development tools and methods.

Having described our invention, what we now claim is as follows.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of improving static securityanalysis, comprising: receiving, at a cloud platform, a binary archivecontainer, the binary archive container securing a source code componentfrom being reverse-engineered from a compact representation of thesource code component, the compact representation identifying at least apath to one or more source code directories and at least one compiletime dependency, the compact representation having been generated in anautomated manner in a development environment by a generator tool thatreceives a set of build information associated with the source codecomponent, and analyze the set of build information, the binary archivecontainer having been generated by transforming the compactrepresentation; merging the binary archive container with at least oneother binary archive container received at the cloud platform from adistinct development environment to create a merged binary archivecontainer; and performing, on the cloud platform, a static securityanalysis on the merged binary archive container instead of on the sourcecode component or any compiled version thereof.
 2. The method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the build information is received from abuild system as the set of build information is generated.
 3. The methodas described in claim 1, wherein the build information is received froma source code repository in association with a discovery operation. 4.The method as described in claim 3 further including: identifying, basedon a run strategy, one or more source files that, together with the setof build information, are used to generate the compact representation.5. The method as described in claim 1 further including: the receivingat the cloud platform a new binary archive container that has beengenerated in the development environment upon updating the source codecomponent; generating a new merged binary archive container; andperforming the static security analysis on the new merged binary archivecontainer.
 6. Apparatus, comprising: one or more processors; andcomputer memory holding computer program instructions executed by theone or more processors for improving static security analysis, thecomputer program instructions operative to: receive, at a cloudplatform, a binary archive container, the binary archive containersecuring a source code component from being reverse-engineered from acompact representation of the source code component, the compactrepresentation identifying at least a path to one or more source codedirectories and at least one compile time dependency, the compactrepresentation having been generated in an automated manner in adevelopment environment by a generator tool that receives a set of buildinformation associated with the source code component, and analyze theset of build information, the binary archive container having beengenerated by transforming the compact representation; merge the binaryarchive container with at least one other binary archive containerreceived at the cloud platform from a distinct development environmentto create a merged binary archive container; and perform, at the cloudplatform, a static security analysis on the merged binary archivecontainer instead of on the source code component or any compiledversion thereof.
 7. The apparatus as described in claim 6, wherein thebuild information is received from a build system as the set of buildinformation is generated.
 8. The apparatus as described in claim 6,wherein the set of build information is received from a source coderepository in association with a discovery operation.
 9. The apparatusas described in claim 8, wherein the computer program instructions arefurther operative to: identify, based on a run strategy, one or moresource files that, together with the set of build information, are usedto generate the compact representation.
 10. The apparatus as describedin claim 6, wherein the computer program instructions are furtheroperative to: receive at the cloud platform a new binary archivecontainer that has been generated in the development environment uponupdating the source code component; generate a new merged binary archivecontainer; and perform the static security analysis on the new mergedbinary archive container.
 11. A computer program product in anon-transitory computer readable medium for use in one or more dataprocessing systems, the computer program product holding computerprogram instructions executed by the one or more data processing systemsfor improving static security analysis, the computer programinstructions operative to: receive, at a cloud platform, a binaryarchive container, the binary archive container securing a source codecomponent from being reverse-engineered from a compact representation ofthe source code component, the compact representation identifying atleast a path to one or more source code directories and at least onecompile time dependency, the compact representation having beengenerated in an automated manner in a development environment by agenerator tool that receives a set of build information associated withthe source code component, and analyze the set of build information, thebinary archive container having been generated by transforming thecompact representation; merge the binary archive container with at leastone other binary archive container received at the cloud platform from adistinct development environment to create a merged binary archivecontainer; and perform, at the cloud platform, a static securityanalysis on the merged binary archive container instead of on the sourcecode component or any compiled version thereof.
 12. The computer programproduct as described in claim 11, wherein the build information isreceived from a build system as the set of build information isgenerated.
 13. The computer program product as described in claim 11,wherein the set of build information is received from a source coderepository in association with a discovery operation.
 14. The computerprogram product as described in claim 13, wherein the computer programinstructions are further operative to: identify, based on a runstrategy, one or more source files that, together with the set of buildinformation, are used to generate the compact representation.
 15. Thecomputer program product as described in claim 11, wherein the computerprogram instructions are further operative to: receive at the cloudplatform a new binary archive container that has been generated in thedevelopment environment upon updating the source code component;generate a new merged binary archive container; and perform the staticsecurity analysis on the new merged binary archive container.